Easter Chook (or 2!)

I had to try this Free Range Chicken from the Lily Sugar & Cream website. Ok, so it doesn't look anything like theirs! But... ummm... he is rather obese (slightly overstuffed!). Not good for a chook, but he did end up rather large. BJ doesn't mind. Also my chook doesn't have legs. I can't figure out the pattern for the legs. I started doing the claws & toes bit but even the bit I did, I really couldn't work out what I was even creating & the rest of the instructions I couldn't work out to get past that. So BJ got a legless chook yesterday. He doesn't know any better & he likes it as it is. Plus it sits this way. I didn't use the Sugar & Cream cotton like it says as I have a very limited supply of that & I don't really want to waste it on a toy right now! lol Oh the beak is all wonky on the picture as it keeps getting pulled open while he makes chicken noises so it will probably be a funny shape for ever! I was pleased with the wings & comb though. Very cute!
My other Easter activity was painting the spare room. It needed 3 coats in the end so I was busy with that. Got 2 done Friday & the last one on Saturday. You can just make out the colour which is a really light green (Alpine Mist by Walpamur). The chest of drawers we did 2 shades darker & it's called Fresh Peppermint so that look pretty cute in the room. Now I have to decide what to do with the rest of it. Oh & you can see me the fat chook below at 27 weeks along.... (& standing on a ladder! lol)

Hope your Easter & ANZAC day if you had that one too, was lovely & you had a nice break!

Finishing Frenzy 3

I have another dragonfly cushion. This has been kicking around in the embroidery hoop for a month or so. I just worked on it when the mood took me. But this was my sign that I had too much going on! I spent a considerable amount of time trying to find the thread the other week. Nothing worse huh? Very disorganised I was. I had it sitting on the desk so I could pick it up & do a bit here & there. Well, when the thread was gone & I was forced to tidy up & put stuff away in my search for it, I thought I definitely need to get some of these things out of the way & finished.

Well I didn't find the thread. Darn it. I have decided that it must have fallen in the bin next to the desk. Darn it. Maybe one day I will find it hiding away one day. lol

I am a bit addicted to these cushions even though this took so long. I wandered around work one day & matched some fabric with a skein of Threadworx threads. I really wanted to use this particular fabric & thought it worked well with the dragonflies since it is floral. So I went with Threadworx 1151 & this groovy fabric. See front... & below the backing.

Then a close up of the colours on the dragonflies. But... having used this stuff I was still nervous. You see, when you finish this off you need to see the cushion cover & then wash it to get all the marking of the pattern off. It's just magic that. But.... the Threadworx did run, just like I was afraid would happen. So I soaked it for a bit to get the bleeding out & then let it run out a bit more. Then rather than leaving it to dry I quickly dried it with the iron so it was only slightly damp. But then the knots in back were running so I had to stuff the inside with some paper towel to try to avoid a bit more run. But I got there in the end. It's not perfect as I don't think the dark green bits were going to stop running ever but I elimated the bleeding as much as I could. Phew... & it looks pretty spiffy & again, one of my favourites. I still think I really like the green version better but oh well, that is living on my sisters bed now. lol This one is now at work to show for a bit too. So that's all good. I don't know what I will do with it anyway except chuck it around the house. Hahahahaha...

I think I have run out of finishes for now. I have just started something else in the last hour while sitting here. I couldn't help myself, but I have to as it for Easter. I have until Sunday & I don't know how long it will take. Stay tuned for that... hopefully sooner rather than later. On a good note, I did do a stripe on my Rainbow Ripple blanket last night. It was nice to pick that up again. It's been about 5 months I think since I did some of that.

Have a great end of the week. Short one with a nice holiday break! Nice!

Finishing Frenzy 2

Ta-dah... Finally finally finally.... where to start!

Wind back to last year sometime at work when a rep there showed us this cute fabric panel with trains. Well BJ is into trains & so I was like, Yes that is really great! So... then you have to wait for the fabric to come in to store which it did in March I think. Maybe even February! Ekkk... Well I got some, the train squares, the blue & the red. Love them all. I had the quilt top sewn together a few weeks ago but was delaying on the centre square.

You can see my centre square here - a gold train with Brandon written on it. Well the train was easy. I searched the net for train colouring pages. Found this one. Nice shape without all the detail stitched on it. Instead I thought I would put his name on it. Well that is backstitched & kind of goes down hill a bit which is a pity, but I wasn't going to attempt to remove it because if you are a stitcher of any kind you will know that black leaves marks if you remove it, especially in felt that is kind of fluffy like it. Anyway, it was done. So on the weekend, I have been able to take the time out to baste & quilt it all. I like stipple quilting & at first thought this wasn't going to look so good but I quite like it now. Last night I finished the binding & voila, one train quilt for the kid. But he can't have it yet. It is going to work first. Have to hang up my very amateur made quilt to help sell the trains. Well it worked before with my bug quilt if you remember that one. The fabric didn't last a week after that. So we will see what happens with the trains. It does help in store to have something made as a sample.

So I'm quite pleased with it, even in it's so not close to perfect state. BJ won't care later on.

On a side note, the train panels are based on record covers. I don't know if they are real ones or not but the print label on the fabric says "Artwork Peter Pan records & Cricket records for VIP exclusive". So that is pretty cool since are are record collectors! Whether they are real record covers or not, I will have to find out sometime & search but it's groovy all the same.

Happy Day to you...

Finishing Frenzy

I have been busy as anything working on so many different things it's crazy! For me it is crazy. I am not one to usually have a number of things on the go at once. In fact, with my cross stitching, I never did. But now I have crochet & knitting & embroidery & whatever else strikes me at the time, all going at once. So I have been trying to get some out of the way. I hate having them all floating around taking up space while they wait.

For a start, my Granny Stripe is done! Woohoo! I am really pleased with it. I used a bunch of cotton/acrylic mix for it. It is larger than cot size just, but I won't probably use it for that as it may be too heavy. But either way, I am keeping this one. I like it. This was a major one that I wanted to do to use up some stash with. I went through that box of yarn & recounted. I used about 25 balls so that is pretty good. Plus I can get the lid on the bin it is in now so that is a bonus! I still have lots of short pieces, as I won't start a new ball in the middle of a row. Hate the ends in the middle, so I keep the short bits & will use those to make into granny stripe dishcloths. The corner showing the edging. I like it! :-)

I did finish the Easy Drop Stitch scarf that I had in my previous post. I looks exactly like it does in that picture only without the knitting needle attached so I haven't bothered to take a pic of it done. But it is. Phew. It was easy.

Of course I started some new scarf right after that with some of the 2 ply lace that I got at work. It's so nice. I did struggle at the start of that as the pattern takes some concentration but I am cruising along with that now... Looking forward to getting a bit more of that one done.

Ok, stay tuned for a couple of other finishes this week. Hopefully I can be bothered with posting them!

I'm Still Making!

I get told to sit & Make! Quite nice really. BJ thinks that if he tells me to sit & make then I am least hanging around where he is. He likes to have you around sometimes. Other times you get "Go away Mummy" instead. But I like when I get to Make! Last post I said I had a washcloth coming up. It is pretty obvious in the picture who it is. It is called the Furry Red Monster as the designer is smartly keeping away from licensed names I expect. So I did get my Furry Red Monster cloth for BJ done last Saturday. It's cute.

We had a little fundraiser stall at playgroup the other day & I put my dishcloths that I had been working on in it for sale. A couple went so that was good. All funds went to support our little group so it was good.

I am still working away on my Granny Stripe blanket too. It's a nice one. I really like doing this one. I haven't had the time like usual to do much of any of it though. I think I went almost 3 days without doing any hooking or stitching or anything. Yesterday I was having major withdrawals though & had to do something. I am getting through this yarn though which was the whole point. I can just about get the lid on the bin now. The best thing is that the scrap ends are going to make granny stripe washcloths. So nothing will be wasted. It turned out the one granny stripe cloth I had at the stall the other day went first. People like the colourful stuff I guess. We've been doing crazy things like playing mini golf. It's cooled off very quickly here in the last week so it was good to keep busy in the Autumn freshness, playing a silly game like silly golf! As you can see from this hole, it is quite a challenging course. We had a large group there for our Dad's 70th birthday. My group consisted of L-R, sister Roslyn, Stuart, & sister Judy. It was a whole weekend of birthday party.

Finally I got a chance to sit & do nothing. So of course I had a play on Ravelry again & found yet another scarf pattern & then after digging through more of my wool I started using this one. It's a varigated pink, purple, cream & brown. I really need some new scarves already if it is going to start being scarf weather this early. So what better way to use up stash.

Of course I am trying madly to use up some stash so I can buy more at work. There is such a lot of beautiful wool available but I have to be careful & not buy it all up without a purpose. So you know you have to keep searching Ravelry for more potential patterns. lol There is such a lot there it is amazing. If you aren't inspired to pick up needles or hook yet, then go browse around there & you will find hundreds of things you need to make.

Ok, must dash, yet another busy week. Actually I think April is going to be even busier than March so ekkk.... till next post...

I'm Doomed!

I shouldn't have started knitting this little baby throw last Friday. It's opened up the whole box of knitting needles & now I have to use all of them! lol No not really. But it just got me started on knitting washcloths as well as crocheting them. So I have a whole new world of cloth patterns out there waiting for me.

But firstly, I did finish this little baby throw on Sunday. It didn't take long at all. I only had the 6 balls of Ninna Nanna in this Fairy Floss colour way again, so I could only go so far. It's quite small so I think I will need to keep this one for myself. I'm sure it will be a nice little pram cover or car seat cover for baby later on. Lucky for me it's a winter baby then huh? Cruising along in that department if you are maybe wondering. Just full of cold right now & you really notice not being able to take, or choosing not to take cold tablets to help you out through the day. So I am just crashing & taking it easy giving it time to pass. Hopefully tomorrow it's a whole lot better so I can actually get some jobs done at home.

In the meantime, I have been fiddling away with the knitted cloths. I started with the purple one which is basically the same pattern as the blanket above. Too easy! Then I did the yellow fish which is pretty cute. Quite simple & again is the same pattern as the rest so far. lol It's just amazing what you can find on Ravelry. Like I said, I'm Doomed!

This one is pretty cute. The butterfly just seems to appear which is cute. There are heaps like this available with pictures in them. They are pretty fun but you need to concentrate on your row numbers! lol Not so easy with a toddler wanting your attention constantly but I have had a good chance today with the butterfly so it wasn't an issue. Oh, the red & yellow one on the right is a crochet one again. Just one I was working on while out & about.

So there you go then. Stay tuned for the cute one I am working on today while veging out in front of the TV. I watched Eat, Pray, Love. Have you seen it? What did you think? Did you read the book first? I struggled with the book & must admit struggled a bit with the movie. It had a bits added that weren't in the book but it was OK & save yourself sometime & just watch it rather than read it. Will be much move painless! lol

I hope to get plenty done on the weekend, as I am am hoping I feel much better & able to do all these silly little jobs - some may say I am nesting. Maybe so. Who knows, but at least I have a good excuse to get some of these jobs done now that have been waiting. Happy Weekend to YOU!

Busy Stash Busting

I have been working on & off on dishcloths over the last couple of weeks using bits & pieces, playing with some new patterns that I have found on line, some successfully & some not so. These are some of the most recent. I really had fun with the one on the right - my practice Granny Stripe. How cool does that look. So when I have lots of these cotton scraps left I will use them for this pattern. I think that was done in all ends so that was really cool. It sure is pretty. I am stashing a bunch of these away for a possible fundraiser thing some time down the track. They are nice to chuck in the bag & take away & work on when out & about.

Friday I had a day all to myself! How the heck did I manage that? Yeah I know. But BJ had his first day at family day care. I was at home pretty much most of the day - just in case. But he was fine. He was much to busy to miss me I think. I was much too busy too, so that's all good. lol I was starting my Granny Stripe blanket of course. This I am doing in cotton/acrylic blend as I have loads of it. (125 balls when I sorted it last week! lol Yes I need to use some & then I can get the lid on the box properly!) I don't find it terribly soft for a baby blanket but I will keep going with it anyway cos I love it. I may even change my mind about using just these 5 colours & add a whole bunch of others. We'll see. I am just worried that I will run out of all the nice colours & be stuck with the not so nice bunch. lol

While hooking away on the stripes I remembered the balls I had left of the Ninna Nanna wool. Soft & squishy & once more Fairy Floss coloured. Hmmm... what to do with 6 balls of this. So I did a sample crochet piece with it. It's really not going to go very far though so I thought maybe some knitting may give it a bit more size. So I found a pattern on ravelry that is really a dishcloth pattern but someone had made a blanket like this so I figured I may as well. So I am working my way up one side with 3 balls & then will work down the other with the other 3. It won't be huge but oh well, a little pram cover or something for some baby might be ok. It's nice merino wool & I really want to use it up. I will be very satisfied to have another batch gone & something to show for it so soon. lol

I need to stop looking at ravelry though - I have queued another 10 things probably in the last hour. (that was a good hour I could have been hooking or knitting!) There are so many great patterns out there. How cute are these baby moccasins? What about this pretty lace scarf that would lovely in the 2ply lace we just got in at work? It is worked short ways which appeals to me. The pattern book I was looking at had a chain of 300 something. Ekkk... I can count that far but I don't know if my chains will be correct so I think it will work across ways on about 30 stitches instead. I do like a challenge but I don't need one that big right now! We'll see how we go. No scarf or moccasins for a bit until these other things get done & I can get the lid on the box of cotton. That sounds fair I suppose. Mean of myself but fair. lol

Happy weekend. I have just made the yummiest cookies so my weekend will be very happy!